Ezekiel 22:1-5
It's hard for us to imagine a day when a person would do practically anything to avoid shame and disgrace. The word 'reproach' meant a state of shame and disgrace. Acting as the judge, Ezekiel was to bring the accusation and warn of the judgment to come. God's holy city wasn't so holy. The city is defiled by the blood she had shed and the abominations she had allowed in. The abominations are the idols, things of horror and disgust. This would bring 'her time' (3) which relates to 'your days draw near' in (4). A person whose days draws near is approaching death. This seems the same for the city. It is drawing near its end, rushing foolishly to its own destruction.
Ezekiel 22:6-12
The princes didn't use their power to lead the people in the ways of the Lord, they instead led them to bloodshed. It was one example of lawlessness after another done by people who had characterized their life by their sin to the point of being identified by it.
- They made light of father and mother; a violation of commandment, Exodus 20:12.
- They oppressed the stranger, mistreated the fatherless and widow; violates Leviticus 22:21-22.
- Despised holy things and profaned Sabbaths. An indictment against priests for not maintaining sanctity of temple.
The city was characterized by being full of wicked people. How and when did the holy city become so wicked?
- Men who slander (Lev 19:16).
- Those who eat on the mountain, those worshiping idols on high places.
- Commit Lewdness. Sexual sins that defile, covered graphically in chapter 16.
- Uncover father's nakedness; euphemism for a man having sex with mom or stepmom.
- Violate women set apart during monthly impurity (Lev 18:19).
It was as if one were do this sin and another that sin. No matter where you looked it was found because it was everywhere. All told, all the signs were there; this is the charge brought by Ezekiel: This was total abandonment of Yahweh!
Note: Note the order of the sins: It starts with contempt for the father and mother; they oppressed the alien and the fatherless and the widow; desecration of Sabbaths; corrupt informers (judicial murders); idol worshiping feasts; lewd acts; and on and on.
Ezekiel 22:13-16
To 'beat My fists' was an act of mourning and grief. We know Jerusalem could not stand when God dealt with them, they withered in fear and mourned and fell. They could not understand how or why this was happening to them. The Lord promised from the beginning they would be scattered when they abandoned him (Lev 226:33). Their filth would be removed by purification of fire (see furnace next passage). They would defile themselves by being set apart from the Lord in this foreign land. It seemed that only then would they recognize that He was Lord.
Ezekiel 22:17-22
God had likened them to the dross among the valuable. The dross was the impurity that floated to the top when the metals were melted in the fire. All the waste materials either burned away or formed dull, useless crust on the beautiful silver. This would be removed and thrown away. The purified silver was like a mirror.
This became a parable for Jerusalem, where God would "Gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the its midst." This has to be one of the most intimidating sentences in the bible.
Ezekiel 22:23-31
Israel was a defiled land. Ezekiel points to 4 people groups and what they had done to bring the nation to this place.
- The conspiring prophets. They were like lions tearing at their prey.
- Devoured people
- Taken treasure and precious things
- Made many widows
- The Priests had become violators of the law
- Failed to distinquish the holy from unholy
- Failed to distinguish the clean from unclean
- They ignored the Sabbaths
- The Princes. They had become like wolves tearing their prey with their selfish motives.
- They shed blood
- They destroyed people
- Took for themselves dishonest gain
- They were whitewashed by the prophets, ignoring the coming judgment.
- The People.
- They oppressed their neighbors
- They committed robbery
- They mistreated the poor and needy
- They oppressed the stranger in their land.
In each case, the four people groups had done much, but maybe more important is what they had not done. The Lord could not find one person who would stand in righteousness, to give him a reason to hold back his wrath. There were whitewashed walls but no real walls, built up, precept upon precept, a wall of righteousness. There was no one to intercede on behalf of the people, no one with courage and conviction to speak against sin, call people to righteousness. There was no one for them to follow. They needed another kind of prophet, priest and king. What longing there must have been for Jesus.
©2019 Doug Ford
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